Can a monitor sound like a floorstander??


Don't know if I should put on a flame suit before I ask such a question..but is there? Classical music is my preference and I'm currently using Focus Audio FS688 monitors- they're very good at what they do--obviously better for chamber music than orchestral. I've heard that the Harbeth monitor 40's are great, but they are about the size of a floorstader. Can one get full sounding classical music through a speaker like Sonus Faber Guarneri, Dynaudio C1, or is a floorstander really the only way to go with classical music. I can really only bring my speakers out @ 3feet from the wall. My equipment is:
Ayre V-5xe
BAT VK51-SE
Ayre C-5xe
Running Springs Jaco power conditioner

Thank for your help and suggestions!


classical1
looking at the Goldmund Epilogue and Wilson Watt/Puppy, these great designs are very similar to integrating monitors with separate woofer units. separating drivers in different cabinets definitely has some advantage: less cross-talk, less vibrations from different drivers affecting each other,...

just more work and expensive to implement.
You're on the right track by looking at Monitor 40s. You might also look at similar speakers- Spendor 1/2s, Spendor SP2/3s, Harbeth HP5s, ATCs, etc. Speakers of these designs can provide the weight of floorstanders and the imaging and air of monitors.
I often wonder why some people have so much trouble with subs. I use 2 RELs (used one for years before finding another), bought inexpensively used, and they have level, phase, crossover, and input options. You turn it up, you turn it down, move it a little...these things can be made to blend with anything. Easily. And if you listen primarily to Classical music, you're listening to extremely wide dynamic range stuff that makes the same demands on speakers as disco, if not more demanding, although without a disco ball (I actually do have a tiny disco ball hanging above the wide opening to my listening area, just in case).